are people who wish that this discovery would just go away. Must such a wonderful theory be spoiled by one small “g”? There are those who would question Peacham’s mental health. There are others who would discard “Titus Andronicus” like a lizard detaching its tail, when in danger.
3.2 The Two Gentlemen of Verona
This comedy is about the mercurial Proteus and how he betrayed his best friend, Valentine. Proteus has a strong infatuation for Valentine’s girlfriend, Silvia, the daughter of the Duke of Milan. Proteus betrays Valentine hoping to have the field clear so that he can win Silvia over. After Valentine has been banished from the city, Proteus sends his page (who is in reality his own girlfriend, Julia, dressed as a boy) to Silvia to proclaim his love for her. Silvia, however, knows of the relationship between Proteus and Julia, furthermore she is truely in love with Valentine, so she rejects Proteus.
Here we have one of Shakespeare’s early works. The comedy has some wonderful and brilliantly funny scenes but the plot seems a bit naive and the ending seems to be “constructed”. The literary content, however, is not the focus of our current attention. We want to discuss what the author reveals of his knowledge of local scenes, Verona and Milan, and what he knows about the history and geography of Italy.
In this play, Verona seems to be an unattractive city. Nobody wants to stay there. The young nobleman Valentine goes to Milan to “attend the Emperor in his royal court”. Shortly thereafter, on the instructions of his father, his friend Proteus follows him to “practice tilts and tournaments, / hear sweet discours, converse with noblemen/ and be in eye of every exercise/ worthy his youth and nobleness of birth” (I/3).
Strange though it may seem, on our arrival in in the new city the “Emperor” seems to vanish into thin air. We only hear of “The Duke of Milan”. Has the author forgotten about the Emperor on the mystifying sea journey between Verona and Milan?
In his book, the highly recommended: “The Shakespeare Guide to Italy” (2010) Richard Paul Roe tells us of a short visit by Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, to the duchy of Milan. Following Charles’ V victory over François I in Pavia (1525) and the treaty of Cambrai (1529), Milan, Genoa and Naples were under Spanish rule. As a token of his allegiance, Francesco II Sforza, Duke of Milan (1495-1535), invited the Emperor for a visit. Charles V was expected to stay for a long time, however, he only stayed in Milan for four days: 10th through to 14th March -1533.
This could well explain how Shakespeare was suddenly short of an Emperor. Shakespeare sends the two young men to Milan to attend the Emperor’s court; instead of the Emperor they meet the Duke’s daughter Silvia and both of them fall in love with her.
Shakespeare seems to be speaking of Verona as if it were a port. A matter that we find most irritating. Valentin takes his leave with the following words:
Once more adieu; my father at the road
Expects my coming, there to see me shipp’d. (I/1)
However, the author isn’t speaking of a seaport: Richard P. Roe brings clarity into the situation.
„Along select channels of the seas, and in the large and smooth rivers the world over, there are wide places for ships to anchor called ‚roads’ or ‚roadsteads’. – In 1580, when the famous essayist Michel de Montaigne saw Verona’s road, he remarked in his Diary about the ‚vast quay’ [clôture vaste]. The road and the adjacent quay were just downstream from the great stone bridge called ‚Ponte Navi’ (Ship Bridge).“
Bernardo Bellotto (Canaletto): Ponte Navi (1748)
What on Earth was the author thinking when he sent our two romantic heroes through Italy on a ship?
For reason of safety and comfort, wealthy travellers in the 16th century actually did greatly prefer canals and waterways to overland travel. Richard P. Roe points out, (as did his predecessor Sir Edward Sullivan) that, at that point in time, Italy had a very comprehensive system of canals and waterways joining Lake Maggiore with the Adriatic Sea. One could reach Milan from Verona by going up the Adige to Legnano, from there along the “Nicholasa” canal into the Tartaro, after that, up-river to the canals “La Fossetta” and “La Fossa”- from there up the river Po, after Cremona turn into the Adda- from the Adda into the “Navigilo Martesana” (the Martesana canal) in the direction of Milan.
Vincenzo Coronelli: Burchiello and Barca
Sixteenth century Milan was circumvented by two rings of canals. Sir Edward Sullivan writes in 1918: “We find the city in 1497 in ship communication on one side (by the Naviglio della Martesana) with the Adda, and on the other (by the Naviglio Grande) with the Ticino, the Po, and Lago Maggiore – a condition sufficient to justifiy Carlo Pagnano’s statement in 1520 that Milan, far as it was from the sea, might easily be taken to be a seaport town.”
“That’s all very well,” say the friends of Shakespearian literature, but:”Why does the author talk about the tide in Verona?” (II/3)
PANTHINO. Launce, away, away, aboard! Thy master is shipp’d, and thou art to post after with oars. What’s the matter? Why weep’st thou, man? Away, ass! You’ll lose the tide if you tarry any longer.
LAUNCE. It is no matter if the tied were lost; for it is the unkindest tied that ever any man tied.
PANTHINO. What’s the unkindest tide?
LAUNCE. Why, he that’s tied here, Crab, my dog.
PANTHINO. Tut, man, I mean thou’lt lose the flood, and, in losing the flood, lose thy voyage, and, in losing thy voyage, lose thy master, and, in losing thy master, lose thy service, and, in losing thy service -
The answer: The author couldn’t resist the delightful plays on the words: tide (= the swelling of the sea and, =the opportune moment) and tied (=bound). He gives way to the temptation and turns the Adige into the Thames. Perhaps more readily, because now he can make a cynical reference to “The Tide tarrieth for no Man” by George Walpull (1576).
Still in a humorous vein, he has Speed mark the arrival of Launce in Milan with the words “Welcome to Padua”. Whereupon they march straight to an “alehouse”.
Launce and Crab, 1762
Nonetheless, it would be a mistake to take Launce for a run-of-the-mill scoundrel from Southwark; he relates that his master Proteus and Mistress Julia have “parted very fairly in jest.”
“What, are they broken?” asks Speed.
Launce answers “No, they are both as whole as a fish.”
This dialogue is based on a colloquial Italian phrase “sano come un pesce”.
Furthermore, Launce is well acquainted with the new arrivals on the shelves of the English book shops:
LAUNCE. He lives not now that knows me to be in love; yet I am in love; but a team of horse shall not pluck that from me; nor who ‘tis I love; and yet ‘tis a woman; but what woman I will not tell myself; and yet ‘tis a milkmaid; yet ‘tis not a maid, for she hath had gossips; yet ‘tis a maid, for she is her master’s maid and serves for wages. She hath more qualities than a water-spaniel- which is much in a bare Christian. Here is the cate-log [Pulling out a paper] of her condition. ‘Inprimis: She can fetch and carry.’
This “cate-log” is a reference to “Of Englishe dogges the diversities, the names, the natures, and the properties...” London 1576, from a certain Dr. Caius, in which the characteristics of the cocker-spaniel are discussed on page 16.